MENIFEE: Witnesses testify in bank heist trial

A witness in the trial of two defendants accused of participating in bank robberies in Menifee and Riverside told a Riverside jury Thursday what he experienced on Feb. 25.

Alejandro Ortiz, a teller at the Chase Bank on Van Buren Boulevard in Riverside, said he realized a robbery was under way when a masked man entered the office and looked as if he might be holding a gun underneath his hooded sweatshirt.

"That's when (he) started yelling, 'Stay there. It's a robbery. Don't move," Ortiz said. "At that point, I was just complying and I was going to do whatever he wanted me to do."

Ortiz was the first witness called to the stand by Deputy District Attorney Amy Barajas in the cases against Kenneth Robert Miskell, 42, and Suzanne Louise Bishop, 36, both of whom authorities describe as transients.

Miskell and Bishop each are charged with one count of vehicle theft by a repeat offender and eight counts of robbery for their alleged roles in what Barajas described in her opening statement as a crime spree.

The defendants contend another man was the actual perpetrator of the robberies, for which stolen cars were used in the escapes.

Investigators said in a court document that Miskell admitted to being the getaway driver in the robberies and Bishop to stealing the cars, including one she took took from the Target parking lot in Menifee on March 3. That vehicle was used in the getaway after the robbery of a nearby Compass Bank.

The latter crime netted $22,561 and the three divided the money amongst themselves at a Best Value Inn in Menifee, where officers arrested Bishop and Miskell the next day, the court documents state.

In response to questioning by Miskell's and Bishop's defense attorneys, Ortiz and four other witnesses to the Riverside robbery said they could not visually place either of the defendants at the scene.

The witnesses described the robber similarly as wearing a hooded gray jacket, thick work gloves and a mask, and carrying an insulated lunch bucket into which he shoved the money. The physical details were corroborated by surveillance camera video of the robbery, clearly showing the perpetrator disguised behind a costume mask with a scowling expression and ape-like features.

Adding to Ortiz's trepidation, he testified, was that the robber demanded $50 and $100 bills, and the teller did not have any big bills in his cash drawer. Instead, he shoved packs of ones and fives onto the counter, provoking the robber to scream at him and throw the small bills back.

"At that time, I was thinking, 'Oh my God, I don't want to get shot," he said. "I'm still thinking he had a gun."

Fortunately, Ortiz said, the robber took what money he had already collected and fled. Witness Abraham Acosta, a personal banker at the office, said the entire episode only lasted about a minute. He used his cellphone to capture video of the robber leaving the building and entering the passenger's side of a late-model Honda Accord. That video was shown to the jury.

The prosecution planned to call witnesses to the Menifee robbery later in a trial that is expected to continue into next week in the courtroom of Judge Christian Theirbach.

The suspect in the Menifee robbery took a similar approach, but wore a black monster mask and collected money in a square plastic container, according to authorities.